From left: Elvin Ong, Bernard Chen, Terence Lee

With the prevalence of online media used by political parties, the topic takes on special significance as the role of online media vis-à-vis print media will come into prominence in the coming elections, much more so than the General Election in 2006.

The sixth installment of the YouthQuake series forums attracted an audience of about 30 participants, including working adults and students, amongst whom the youngest was a secondary 2 student who participated in the vibrant discussion at the forum.

For the first time at YouthQuake forum, the panel was made up of an ‘all-campus students’ team. The speakers include: Elvin Ong (SMU Business and Political Science, year 4), Terence Lee (NTU Communications undergraduate and Former News Editor of The Online Citizen (TOC) and Bernard Chen (Workers’ Party Youth Wing Secretary and NUS History, year 1)

Dishing out the ‘appetizer’, Elvin stimulated the forum participants’ minds with questions on the effectiveness of online media reaching its Audience with its intended Agenda that results in eventual Action, using examples from local online alternative media. He also shared on some personal exchanges he had with a prominent leader who maintained the view that diversity is not good for Singapore. This perhaps, explains why our local mainstream media is less vibrant than its overseas counterparts. He questioned on how successful have both the government and alternative groups’ Agenda reached the Audience? Are the Actions or Inactions something we think that will strengthen this country?

Terence shared that the view “online equals to free” puts alternative media in Singapore in a delicate situation. Sharing from his personal experience as a student journalist, one of his opportunity costs to cover stories is the time he needs to spend on studies. Maintaining such websites is no easy feat as there are various costs involved in capturing and running stories and having the stories up on the Internet. He emphasized, “Passion alone cannot sustain the sites”. Comparing Singapore’s situation against that in the United States where it is easier to reach venture capitalists to fund the running costs, he attributes the difficulties faced here to the climate of fear in Singapore.

The other issue he raised was on the subject of “objectivity”. The impression that “online media = lacking in integrity and mainstream media = credible” is a fallacy because no journalist can claim that his or her view is objective. Everyone would have his/her view, including the mainstream media journalists. Hence, the next time any media claims to be objective, we might want to think twice and assess.

Related to Elvin’s theme on Audience, Agenda and Action, Bernard Chen shared that it is not easy to engage political apathetic young people through the Internet because people tend to go to sites which interest them, and do not necessarily visit political forums that they are not interested in.

Bernard believes that while the Internet helps political action, it is but just a tool. The more important factor is for the candidate to be able to put up a message that is stronger and more convincing. He illustrated this with a study on the US President Obama Barack’s successful campaign against his opponents who also extensively used the Internet.

In the local context, although some people may think that their views posted on the Internet would be heard and considered by the policy makers, experience tells Bernard: “Nothing beats the face-to-face communication with fellow Singaporeans, to understand what they are really facing and how they think.” Walking his talk, Bernard has been actively walking the ground with party members every week to engage residents. He is also known among the student activism circles as the main engine behind the recent successful campaign to lobby for fairer transport fares for tertiary students. Concluding his speech on “A Constructive Voice or An Unnecessary Noise – The Internet’s Significance on Politics”, he challenged all to, “Be the change that you want to see rather than the voice you want people to hear!”

Indeed, being in the Workers’ Party Youth Wing creates countless opportunities for constant interaction with like-minded people, fostering the inception of various initiatives and ideas. It encourages thinking out of the box and the development of ideas and opinions crucial to assisting and raising political awareness among the youths in Singapore. We are hopeful to see more youths taking keen interest in the affairs of the country. To find out more, you can contact The Workers’ Party Youth Wing at youthwing@wp.sg or go to our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/wpyouth.

THE INFLUENCE OF ONLINE MEDIA ON SINGAPOREAN YOUTHS
16 Jan 2009, Sat 2.30pm – 5.00pm
@ WP HQ, 216-G Syed Alwi Road, #02-03

With the prevalence of online media on political parties, this topic takes on special significance as the role of online media vis-à-vis print media will come into prominence in the coming elections, much more so than in the 2006 elections.

The Workers’ Party Youth Wing (WPYW) invites you to attend this sixth installment of the YouthQuake series of forums. This forum will bring together four young Singaporeans who will share with you their unique insights and experiences in the online media scene. It promises to be an engaging and enriching session for everyone!

Making Sense of Virtual Reality – Agenda, Audience, Action
By Elvin Ong, 24, SMU Business Undergraduate

Elvin will explore the question to what extent can online media in the virtual world motivate people to take action, in particular, political action, in the physical world?

Alternative media – taking the next step
By Terence Lee, 23, NTU Communications Undergraduate & News Editor of The Online Citizen

The alternative media in Singapore is in a delicate situation: while it has attained a measurable amount of influence among Singaporeans, it has also stagnated. Readership has plateaued, and we are nowehere near seeing a full-fledged, professional form of alternative media that countries like Malaysia currently enjoy. In his presentation, Terence Lee will share his ideas about what the alternative media can do (or cannot do) to progress beyond its current form.

Implications of Singapore Law on Online Media
By Sangeetha Yogendran, 23, NUS Law Undergraduate

Sangeetha will be examining the rights one has regarding online media, focusing on censorship and defamation laws. She will also examine the potential implications of the cooling-off day and talk about whether the current laws should be changed in this new online era.

To register your interest, please contact Bernard Chen at bernardchen@wp.sg

Note: The fourth speaker, Ruth Komathi will not be speaking due to other personal commitments.

More details…

Perry Tong stepped down as WP Youth President after 3 years to facilitate leadership renewal, and the Workers’ Party CEC appointed Koh Choong Yong to be WP Youth Wing President.

Norhidayat Ali completed his 2-year term and stepped down from his position as a Youth Wing ExCo member.

The Vice-President and 3 new ExCo members were elected in the Conference yesterday.

The following members now form the new Youth Wing Executive Committee:

President: Koh Choong Yong
Vice-President: Ng Swee Bee
Secretary: Bernard Chen Jiaxi

Executive Committee Members:

• Frieda Chan Sio Ping
• Koh Chee Wei
• Nathaniel Koh
• Jamilah Bt Md Lutfi Lim
• Chelsea Lu
• Alfred Ng
• Aaron Peng Jian Xiong
• Tan Thuan Tong

The WP Youth Wing Executive Committee would like to express their thanks to Perry Tong and Noorhidayat Ali for their contributions to the WP Youth Wing.

Essay Writing Competition

The Essay Writing Competition has come to an end, and the results are now out!  Prize-presentation for the 3 winners will be at the Town Hall Dialogue session below.

National Day Outreach

On 9 Aug 2009, a group of Workers’ Party members went around different locations in Singapore to distribute flags, and to wish everyone a Happy National Day! If you spotted us, you would get and probably also be wearing the “I Love Singapore” temporary tattoo on you that day!

To see a slideshow of the photos taken on that day, checkout the post on the WP main site.

Town Hall Dialogue

Open for Questions

The Road Less Travelled

How youths are taking an alternative route to nation-building?

The Workers’ Party Youth Wing would like to engage you in a discussion on the political future of Singapore, due consideration to the education of Singaporean youths and the nation building process via a responsible and constructive platform. Breaking tradition with the normal formalities associated with a public forum, you will be hearing from Youth Wing Members as they share with you their thoughts and aspirations in an open and frank town hall dialogue.

The details of the "Open for Questions" Town Hall Dialogue are as follows:

To register for this Public Town Hall Dialogue, send your Name/Email to 9162-6801 or email the Workers’ Party Youth Wing at youthwing@wp.sg.

See our e-invite for the event. More details about the Town Hall Dialogue.

We look forward to see you at the forum!

Eleven eloquent and articulate essays were received from young Singaporeans ranging from 15 to 30 years old. Essays’ scores were calculated using a combination of Facebook ‘likes’ from members of the public and a panel of five judges. More than 80 unique ‘likes’ from different individuals were made on Facebook. Since the start of the competition, the WP Youth Wing Facebook Page has seen a modest increase of ‘fans’ or supporters.

The winners of the Essay Writing Competition are:

Champion: Crystal Ong, 15
1st Runner-Up: Terence Lee, 23
2nd Runner-Up: Natasha Lai, 22

The prize-presentation ceremony will be held on 22nd August, Saturday, 2.00pm @ IOI Plaza, in conjuction with the WP Youth Wing Town Hall Dialogue.

The WP Youth Wing congratulates the top three winners and thanks all eleven participants for their valuable insights into their ideal Singapore. All participants have demonstrated great vision and given us hope for the future of our country!

Once again here are the essays for your reading pleasure:

To mark our nation’s 44th birthday, the Workers’ Party Youth Wing is organising a series of events for Singapore’s youths.

Essay Writing Competition

“What Is Your Ideal Singapore?”

The theme of the Essay Writing Competition, “What Is Your Ideal Singapore?”, will enable youths to articulate their hopes and dreams for our nation.

This is a competition with a difference. Using Facebook as a platform for scoring the essays, members of the public have a vote in the final results. Facebook ‘likes’ will make up 40% of the total score, while the rest of the scores will be from a panel of judges.

The competition will be open for submissions of essays from 20th July to 9th August 2009. Submit your essays at essay@wp.sg. The top 3 entries will win a Borders gift voucher each, with the top prize valued at $150.

We look forward to your participation in this competition.

If you have any enquiries, please feel free to contact Nathaniel Koh (Project Lead) at essay@wp.sg and visit our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/wpyouth.

Additional information – refer to the “Full Terms to Participants”.

Town Hall Forum

Open for Questions

The Road Less Travelled

How youths are taking an alternative route to nation-building?

Do you have a burning question for the Workers’ Party Youth Wing? Have you ever contemplated being a part of the Workers’ Party Youth Wing? What could probably be your worries and considerations?

Breaking tradition with the normal formalities associated with a public forum, you will be hearing from 6 Youth Wing members as they address your queries and concerns in an open and frank town hall dialogue.

The details of the "Open for Questions" Town Hall Dialogue are as follows:

If you are keen on attending this forum, kindly register your interest with the Workers’ Party Youth Wing @ youthwing@wp.sg.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/wpyw.

We look forward to see you at the forum!

Moderated by WP member Nathaniel Koh,  the forum saw four speakers at the podium, each distinguished in their own right. They were (in order of speaking):

• Mr Chia Yeow Tong - Ph.D Candidate at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto (Canada)
  Entitled “What’s the moral of the story?”, Yeow Tong provided a historical overview of the evolution of “National Education” in Singapore. He spoke based on his research in this doctoral dissertation on history and civic education in Singapore from 1955 to 2004.
• Ms Shiao-Yin Kuik – Creative Director of a collective of social enterprises: School of Thought, Food for Thought, Thinkscape Heritage Trails and Think Tank Publishing.  Going in-depth on creativity with her speech entitled “Are we educating our children out of creativity?”, Shiao-Yin screened an eight-minute video on Sir Ken Robinson’s speech on creativity from TED.com.  She went on to explore his theory that our education system should emphasise creativity as much as literacy or numeracy.
• Mr Bernard Chen – Secretary of the WPYW and recent graduate of Temasek Polytechnic.  In his speech, Bernard highlighted the challenges that polytechnic students face when seeking entry into a local university. Having gone through both the junior college and polytechnic routes, Bernard offered a unique perspective on both sides of the education spectrum.
• Dr Roland Cheo – Visiting Fellow, Department of Economics, National University of Singapore.  Roland highlighted that the incentives in our teaching profession should be relooked to attract the right people with the correct mindset to join the profession. He also touched on his observation that our education system rewards those who follow the norm, rather than the outliers.

The forum ended with a presentation of the WP’s 50th anniversary publication to all speakers.

The next YouthQuake forum will be held in late May/early June. We hope to see you there! Be updated about the YouthQuake forums on WP Youth Wing’s Facebook page.

Rethinking Education in Singapore

Has our education system produce a nation of thinking and committed citizens capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century? How far are we from realising the vision of “Thinking Schools, Learning Nation”set forth by then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in 1997?

Do you know that the Labour Front government in 1956 under David Marshall proposed multilingualism and placed emphasis on learning English in our schools, which formed the basis for Singapore’s present educational system?

The Workers’ Party Youth Wing takes great pleasure in inviting you to participate in an upcoming public forum as part of the YouthQuake Forum Series. This forum series is into its 2nd run and offers an excellent opportunity for Singapore youth to exchange ideas and experiences and you can keep pace with the pulse of today’s youth in a pleasant and stimulating atmosphere and experience the dynamic nature of youth-centric issues.

The details of the YouthQuake Forum are as follows:

If you are keen on attending this forum, kindly register your interest with the Workers’ Party Youth Wing at youthwing@wp.sg or email Bernard Chen directly at bernardchen@wp.sg. We look forward to seeing you at the forum!

Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/YouthQuake or join the YouthQuake Facebook Group.

Find out more about the speakers and moderator of this forum.

Link to photo on Flickr

The annual WP Youth Wing Conference was conducted at party HQ on 24 August 2008.

Koh Choong Yong, Vice-President Youth Wing, kicked off the event with a welcome address.

Ms Glenda Han, Ms Lee Lilian and Mr Muhammad Faisal bin Abdul Manap stepped down from their respective posts, having completed their 2-year terms in the Youth Wing Exco.

The posts of the WPYW Secretary and 5 Executive Committee member were opened for elections this year.

The following members now form the new Youth Wing Executive Council:

President: Perry Tong Tzee Kwang
Vice-President: Koh Choong Yong
Secretary: Bernard Chen Jiaxi

Executive Committee Members:

• Chan Sio Phing Frieda
• Jamilah Bt Md Lutfi Lim
• Koh Chee Wei
• Norhidayat Ali
• Peng Jian Xiong Aaron
• Tan Kian Hwee Melvin
• Tan Thuan Tong

The closed door event which lasted approximately 3 hours ended with a closing address by YW President Perry Tong.

Despite the topic, ‘The Evolving Role of Women in Singapore’, there was a good mix of both males and females. The speakers include: Dana Lam, the 10th President of AWARE from 1999 to 2000; Lilian Lee, currently a trainer as well as the Workers’ Party Youth Wing Exco; Koh Kai Lin, a graduate from the Singapore Institute of Management; and Selene Cheng, sub-editor of The Online Citizen, a socio-political blog in Singapore.

Dana, the only mother among the panel of speakers, started the session by posing a question to the audiences: “We have heard many talk about our founding fathers, but anyone remembers who our founding mothers are?” She went on to briefly described women’s movement in Singapore. She also highlighted how the PAP came into power in 1959 with strong support by women. However, in the early 90s, the government said that back in the 50s they were too young and idealistic when they spoke of giving women equal rights. Her speech had provided a good overview of the perception the society has of women.

The 2nd speaker, Lilian, highlighted the plight of unwed mothers and why were they not given the same entitlements as other mothers. She compared giving unwed mothers a 2nd chance to the ‘Yellow Ribbon Project’. She also came up with 8 reasons why unwed mothers should be given equal benefits. She ended her speech by citing part of the pledge, ‘…based on justice and equality, so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our Nation.’

The next speaker, also the youngest among the four, Kai Lin, touched on why Singaporean women are not giving birth. Change of mindset to the standards of getting married, reasons for having children and strong support from family were the 3 main areas how we can tackle this problem. She left the audience with a thought: ‘Your parents, they give you your life, but then they try to give you their life.’

The last speaker, Selene started out by identifying the different roles women are playing in the society today. Selene focused on the work-life-balance that challenges women today. She suggested three methods for consideration on how work-life-balance can be achieved and three ways to implement the system. She also holds the view to scrap foreign maid levy so as to decrease the tendency of hiring a maid who is actually a replacement for mothers.

The session ended with a presentation of the Party’s 50th Anniversary Commemorative book to the speakers as tokens of appreciation by Youth Wing Vice-President, Koh Choong Yong.

We would like to thank all speakers and participants for YouthQuake Series 1. We look forward to seeing you at Series 2 and we aspire to make it more successful.

The following are photos taken at YQ4. Click on the photos to see the details.